I was listening to Rob Long this afternoon on my way out to Owings Mills and heard Tom (maybe he said he was from Dundalk, but I’m not sure, honestly) call the show.

What transpired was 7 minutes of the most ridiculous, insane, “unathletic” sports logic I’ve ever heard.

In Rob’s defense, he was so dumbfounded, he rattled off a response or two and let Tom continue on with his drivel, but you either had to call the guy an absolute flaming lunatic or you just had to let him ramble on. Rob took the high road and let him ramble on. So, I’ll call Tom a flaming lunatic tonight.

Tom said, with total truth and reason in his voice…”that Ravens win on Sunday over the Rams isn’t worth being happy about.” That was his first point. He then went on to try and make a point that went something like this: “how many teams with winning records have the Ravens defeated over the last couple of years?”

Uh, Tom, I’m not sure you realize this pardner, but the Ravens DON’T set the schedule. They play the team that’s put out in front of them.

But Tom’s call got me to thinking….”I wonder how many other people out there don’t think Sunday’s win over the Rams has value?”

If you’re in that camp, go to Home Depot, buy a 2 by 4, take it home, and have your wife or significant other hit you in the head with it. At least then, you’ll have an excuse for not making sense.

The Ravens are in a battle to win 10 games in the regular season. They’ve played 6 games to date and won 4 of them. They have a virtual must-win situation this Sunday – on the road – with their back-up quarterback at the helm who has always been much more of a homer than a road warrior.

“That win on Sunday isn’t worth being happy about.” Are you kidding?

They won the game by 19 points. In the NFL, that’s somewhat of a laugher. 21 of 95 games thus far have been decided by 19 or more points. 80% of the time, teams don’t beat other teams by 19 or more points.

“The Ravens haven’t really played anyone this year.” That was another one of Tom’s gems today.

They’ve played the six teams the league put in front of them. Would the Ravens lose 48-13 to New England right now? Most likely. But they’re not playing New England right now. They have Buffalo coming up. And they need a win. And if they get it, that one will also be a very important victory, just like the Rams win was on Sunday.

Tom tried to launch into a Brian Billick tirade during his call, but he was so winded with that 7 minutes of senselessness that he couldn’t even muster a logical stance against Billick. Well, Tom, get out your frisbee, sift through the seeds and stems, roll this nugget of info up and take a nice, long drag off of THIS:

In Brian Billick’s tenure in Baltimore, his team is 52-1 when they establish a lead of 14 or more points during the game.

Anyone else digest that yet? 52 and 1. For all of his tom-foolerly play calling, his “extreme loyalty” to his players, his failure to manage the clock, his inability to get the team in the red zone (as if he’s doing the blocking, among other things) and all the other morsels of bad coaching the anti-Billick group can churn out, the one undeniable element of Billick’s style is this: if the team gets up by 14, the football game is O-V-E-R. Yet, no one seems to mention that, ever. And that’s not meant to deflect any of the legitimate criticism that people lob at Billick for his clock management and lack of offensive touchdowns…some of that stuff is indisputable, actually. But every week, people like Tom take a win and ignore the good — and pile on with the bad — and yet, the result is still the same: A win.

Tom rolled on with his phone call and Rob, rightfully so, just let Tom continue to embarrass himself by claiming that “these Ravens wins against teams that don’t have winning records don’t mean anything.” Really? Well, don’t tell that to New England. Already this year, they’ve defeated the Jets, Buffalo, Cleveland, Cincinnati and San Diego. What do they all have in common? Tom should know this: none of those teams have a winning record either.

The Ravens played a game on Sunday without the following players: Jon Ogden, Dan Wilcox, Mike Flynn, Adam Terry, Trevor Pryce, Steve McNair and, for all intents and purposes, Todd Heap. And they still won. Convincingly. As if that matters, really, because it shouldn’t matter what you win by when 8 of your starters are out.

At some point in the next month, the Ravens will probably meet up with the Cleat of Reality, who spent most of Sunday down in Dallas putting his shoe up the hind quarters of Tony Romo and the Cowboys. The Cleat will most likely get a nice place at the Harbor and stay in Baltimore for an entire week, watching the Colts and Pats at M&T Bank Stadium as they both give the Ravens a clear picture of where they rank on the AFC totem pole. But that’s still 6 weeks away. And, depending on what they do between now and December, the Ravens might even be in a position to drop a couple and still stay in the thick of the playoff race.

I’m still not expecting a whole lot from the Ravens. I think they’ll be very fortunate to go 10-6, frankly. Some of that will no doubt be their fault and some of it will be football’s fault. You can’t lose 8 players in the course of the season and expect to win much more than 10 games.

In the meantime, though, the schedule is the schedule. A win is a win. It’s much better than losing, last time I checked. And once they go in the win column, no one really cares HOW they happened.

Well, except for Tom.

But, as he proved today when he called Rob’s show: What the hell does he know?